大象传媒

These diary extracts were written by my father, Mr L.F.C. Knight (1912 鈥� 1991) as part of our Family History, which includes stories of life as family members knew it, photos, family trees and other relevant information. After serving at Reading, my father was sent overseas and below is a description of the first few weeks on Malta.
Arrived at Malta 鈥� First few weeks
Friday 17th Nov 1944
Entered Grand Harbour, Valetta after dropping off the convoy. Pilot came on board at 7.30 am. Massive walls and buttresses. Everything a light yellow colour. No rivers or lakes very desert like. Glare from sunshine very bad. Off boat at 10.00 am. No trees but some shrubs. Curious gondolas for water travel and small horse taxis with bells. Air raid damage everywhere. Fruit on sale locally grown lemons, pomegranates, green bananas and oranges. Steep streets up from the harbour driven through the rock in places. Many locals bare-footed. Pretty children black hair, dark eyes and complexion. Stone buildings with balconies. Cultivated plots between the stone walls. Goats in the scrub. No green grass, some tough yellowish growth resembling it. Pay office and barracks at St. George鈥檚 Bay. Signing forms and so on. Sent cable back. Went down to Sliema in evening to pictures. Supper and back for 11.30 pm. No blackout.
Saturday 18th Nov 1944
A little pay office work. Maltese and English money, same value. Sliema and back. Garrison Hall to cinema. Spencer Tracy and Heddy Lamar in 鈥淒o I take this woman鈥�
Sunday 19th Nov 1944
Tennis am, cleaning personal equipment in afternoon. Garrison pictures 鈥淭ime to kill鈥� with Ralph Byrd etc.
Monday 20 Nov 1944
Pay Office until 4.30 pm. Usual pay office work. Letters in evening.
Tuesday 21 Nov 1944
Usual pay work. Heavy soaking dew at night caused by the 鈥淪irocco Wind鈥�. A hot dry wind from the deserts of Africa crossed the sea and becomes laden with moisture condensing when it meets land. Maltese Army personnel, civilians and ourselves work together on the accounts of the Royal Maltese Artillery mostly. Only Victorian pennies are used on the island. Pictures in evening Mickey Rooney in 鈥淕irl Crazy鈥�. Arguments about length of stay. Willing to bet it would be Xmas 1945. Note: it turned out to be Jan 1946
Wed 22 Nov 1944
Work, Inoculation against typhus. Visited Toc H at Sliema. Back 8.15 pm. Table tennis, reading, writing. A Maltese corporal who described conditions in peace time which were much more strict. Shops all lit up, and harbour fronts gay with lights and music.
Thur 23 Nov 1944
Toc H Sliema, whist drive. A tall five storied house with palm trees in the court. Tea available first thing am. Turns to go to the canteen to fetch it also turns to put out lights at 11pm
Fri 24 Nov 1944
Work. Asked to set out a Xmas card for use on an air mail paper. Short notice but managed two.
Sat 25 Nov 1944
Received first air letter in reply to cable. Stencil of Xmas card pm. Valetta impressive with all its lights.
Sun 26 Nov 1944
St. George鈥檚 Bay pm. Clear blue water with fish, no sea gulls, Letters, reading etc.
Mon 27 Nov 1944
Work boring, very, very damp air. Roads soaked but no fog. Smells of all sorts due to damp.
Tues 28 Nov 1944
Kit checked. Propaganda film pm Island bells started 4.00 am finished at 7am for special mass. Saw a robin yesterday. A shop called 鈥淭he Birmingham Stores鈥� in Sliema. Donald Duck cartoon 鈥淏illposters鈥�. First rain since arriving.
Wed 29 Nov 1944
Letters and Xmas cards sent.
30 Nov 1944
Toc H Music on records. Beethoven, Grieg etc.
Note Routine letters, pay work omitted from here. Items of interest only included.
Fri 1 Dec 1944
Sampled local wine 鈥淗am, tut鈥�. Very strong and rough.
Sat 2 Dec 1944
Visit to Valetta, massive rock forts, many creeks and inlets with Naval Vessels. HQ of navy signals deep down in underground offices near to the Castille manned by WRNS. Old man and young boy, guitar and violin played on the ferry boat. A large variety of wines and spirits in the shops. Anisette, cherry brandy, rum, whisky, Marsala, French brandy, Cyprus brandy and so on.
Sun 3 Dec1944
Best day so far. Changed into shorts and walked about 16 miles. Started at 9am with seven or eight others. Food collected from canteen and went places named below:-
St. Andrews, Birkirkara, Balza, Lia, Altara, St. Anton Gdns (the governors palace) Boschetto gardens and Rabat. Back via Verdala Palace.
Houses like large pill boxes, small square windows very simply constructed. At the centre of each village dominated by very large R.C. churches, cathedral like in proportion. Houses lit by oil and candles. Roads all yellowy white in colour, stone walls with prickly pear hedges at times. Quarries on the hill near the barracks. Deep and shallow, the shallow cultivated. Soil only about 2 ft deep. Centre of villages one or two decent places. Outskirts very dirty and smelly. Plain and very simple, built to give maximum protection from the sun. Flat roofs on which massive gourds/melons are ripened. Coffee in a bar at Birkirkara. Flies everywhere. On to Rabat for our sandwiches eaten in a bar with appropriate drinks. Rabat is near the sea on a hill top. Was the old fortified capital. Usual massive walls, narrow streets very medieval in appearance. Went in St. Antons gardens en route. Marvellous gardens with oriental fruits, shrubs , trees, flowers. Saw the first sight of oranges, lemons, grapefruit growing on the small trees. Other trees palms, figs, pomegranates. Bougonvilleas in flower with their wonderful scent. No grass. Wonderful gardens to find in an almost desert like island. On the walk melons/gourds were so big only one could be put on their donkey carts. Herds of goats following their owners. Donkey and pony cart. Saw a trotting contest. Ponies small and decorated. Broccoli a speciality in the small fields. Sampled a prickly pear. Juicy and red with woody seeds. Passed Verdala Palace. Orange glades in Boschetto gardens. Natives poor in English mostly using their own Maltese language based it is said on the ancient Phoenician. Children drink the local wine which is very strong. Sunday with locals standing and strolling about their evening relaxation.
Tues 5 Dec 1944
System of leave after 3 years was 28 clear days. Two only from those eligible approx 2 only out of 36. Other leave as usual.
Sat 9 Dec 1944
Down to Valetta, walk and bus from Balluta Bay. To Command Hall for show at 8pm. The Command Hall a very solidly built place was the Hospital of the Knights of St. John with alcoves where the beds for the invalids used to be placed. Palm Courts etc. inside. It looked a museum piece and had fortunately escaped destruction.
Sun 10 Dec 1944
Another walk. Collected food from cookhouse, bread and marge, spam tomatoes and tin of pears. To Inya via Moasta a village with an immense cathedral round in shape. The 3rd largest in Europe by repute. Rocky country with fertile plains with fields of broccoli and vines. Passed Victoria lines old trenches built in Victorian times right across the island as precaution against French invasion. In a small town with a beautiful church large and domed. Some rain. Sandwiches in a local bar with tea and a little wine 鈥渉am-tut鈥� peanuts and almonds. Saw ruins of ancient temple 5-6000 years old Rain again got a lift to Birkara. Back for 5.30 pm Quite cool. Lit a fire in recreation room. Jessies bar at 7pm for chips and tomatoes. A varied day, rain and wind but dry morning.
Tues 12 Dec 1944
To Sliema in evening. Lift down and walked back. Haircut by a boy of about 12 years old. Toc H and walked back. Very dark, not too pleasant. Read some John Donnes poems. 鈥淔or love, all other sights control. And makes one little room as everywhere鈥�.
Wed 13 Dec 1944
December and January in the Maltese winter, and nearly all its rain falls in these months. The weather becomes less warm and quite chilly at times. We light fires in the evening mostly from driftwood collected from nearby beaches.
Thurs 14 Dec 1944
Stayed in by fire. Supper at cookhouse. Cheaper and an alternative to the NAFFI the other side of the immense parade ground.
Sat 16 Dec 1944
Down to Valetta after having had a hot shower. Went to Magistral Hall with its tapestries. For tea, fish and chips at the colonial restaurant. Back by ferry and walk back to St. Georges.
Sun 17 Dec 1044
A long walk to Shain-luffia via St. Pauls Bay. A coast walk. St. Paul鈥檚 Bay very attractive. A narrow neck of fertile island. Diverse crops. Banana trees and irrigation systems. Tanks filled by water wheels, lifting tower by horses at the turn tables. Shain-luffia another pleasant spot. Then over the ridge to Mellieha, with church in an imposing position above hair pin bends in the road. Very many children playing in the dirty streets. The hooded dress of women going to church 鈥淭he Faldelta鈥�. A good view of the islands Comino and Gozo. Red clover in the fields. Dates are still small and unripe. Back via Birkirkara. There were nasty rubbish dumps at intervals, tin cans mostly. No wonder we were issued with a tin opener.
Note Usual entries, visits to Sliema and Toc H, reading, writing, wireless and so on and of course Pay Office work.
Mon 25 Dec 1944
Xmas day. On guard duty which consisted of merely being present in the office building. Very quiet day, reading, writing etc.
Tues 26 Dec 1944
Post contained newspapers, table tennis balls and tobacco.
Thurs 28 Dec 1944
Day off 鈥� wind and rain. Letter from my wife in which she states signs of forthcoming event are already beginning to show.
Fri 29 Dec 1944
Leave for a few selected long-serving soldiers could be taken in Sicily. We learnt the boat was sunk in a storm. One of our Sergeants was saved but many others were drowned. It was a small boat, very poor ship, of Yugoslav origin.
Sat 20 Dec 1944
Collected photographs from Sliema. Bill Harris a Birmingham chap had seen service on the Pay Corps in Syria, Palestine and Egypt and showed his pictures.
Sun 31 Dec 1944
Letters etc. Duke of Gloucester on the island on his way to Australia. Orders that no mention was to be made in letters.
More stories and pictures including further extracts of Leonard Knight鈥檚 Diary of Malta can be found on our Family Memories website:
^{About links}

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.